Two sides of coin

I do not make it a habit to write to newspapers, but this column I read by Tom McCourt (The Wasatch Behind: Americans vote their future, Sun Advocate, Nov. 2, 2010) was a bit one sided.

It was immediately obvious that Mr. McCourt has been studying at Glenn Beck U. Glenn Beck U is a fictitious university that teaches fictitious history and other bogus subjects.

I would like to start with President Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency. Mr. McCourt says that President Johnson started the Vietnam War. When I left Carbon County in December 1961 to become a soldier in the United States Army, the United States was already involved with the Vietnam Conflict. President Johnson made it an official war when his military leaders gave him what could be called bogus information; and yes, he escalated the war. Again on the bad advice of his Secretary of Defense and military leaders.

What Mr. McCourt fails to mention about President Johnson was how he was instrumental with the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation of the 1960's that allowed blacks in America to start sharing in the American dream. Perhaps that is not important enough for Mr. McCourt to mention. It was important to me because these are my fellow Americans. And it is interesting that Republicans all over America are getting states to pass legislation within their states to force voters to have a picture ID to vote, knowing that many poor Americans in big cities never drive cars and don't have a driver's license. Having no other reason for a picture ID, and not much money, they never get one. Very similar to the old Poll Tax.

Yes, I know that republicans hate President Johnson for his "Great Society" legislation that help give dignity and a little equalization to many Americans. Under President George W. Bush they won back their share by causing an approximate 5 percent drop in workers pay and cutting into the middle class.

Mr. McCourt states that, "Reagan became arguably the best president in modern times." Well, the key word here is "arguably" because many, myself included, consider him to be one of the worst of any time. That is for several reasons, but the main one is because he helped to put this country in a very deep debt. Some economists today think that many of the present economic problems we face in this country today stem from the legislation that Reagan helped push through Congress in 1982 ending regulation of the savings and loan institutions that we later had to bail out.

I have read Mr. McCourt's column online on occasion and knew that he and I don't share many core beliefs. And I do not wish to argue with him or anyone else.